Clerk Whipped Boy With Belt in Store, Charged With Cruelty to A Child
A woman in Georgia is facing charges after she allegedly was caught beating a young boy in a Dollar General store who was misbehaving.
Emilia Graciela Bell, 39, an employee at the Dollar General in Wrightsville, Ga., was arrested last Thursday and initially charged with aggravated assault after she was seen on surveillance video repeatedly striking 8-year-old Logan Ivey. Ivey was shopping at the store with his mother when the incident took place.
A police report detailed that when police arrived to the discount store Bell told cops that she had struck the young boy after he was misbehaving and causing a disturbance in the store. Bell also revealed that she struck the boy with her belt after he had thrown several items at her including batteries.
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But after police reviewed additional footage of the incident, Bell was charged with the more serious crime of cruelty to children after police discovered that she had struck the boy more than two dozen times.
"There were two different angles from different cameras in the store," Wrightsville Police Assistant Sheriff Bill Thompson told ABC. "They'd only watched the first when they arrested Ms. Bell. After finding out another camera had caught it, you could see her striking the child 16 to 18 more times."
Police also added that at one point in the video the boy could be seen hiding underneath a counter as he tried to escape the continued lashings.
"She had him behind the counter," Thompson added. "She had him on the floor at one point. It was pretty bad, looking on the video."
It is still not clear where the mother of the boy was at in the store during the incident as police continue with their investigation.
The case was sent to Georgia Superior Court after Bell posted $5,000 bond, but records indicate that she has yet to enter a plea.
